


the simplest things take the strongest wills

by benadrill



Category: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
Genre: F/M, but! the only way to get better at anything is practice so, eh, i feel like i did her so dirty with this, im bad at writing devi, johnny has three braincells that know murder panic and love devi respectively
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 16:29:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21341260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/benadrill/pseuds/benadrill
Summary: written for devnny on tumblrthe prompt was “a simple short kinda thing, like johnny fretting over going to see devi at the bookstore, but it turns out fine, like it Always does <:)c"
Relationships: Johnny "Nny" C./Devi D.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	the simplest things take the strongest wills

Oh god. Oh _fuck_.

This was bad. Very, very bad.

Johnny C. was not the type of man to fall in love. He was a hollow being, incapable of loving or being loved. At least, that’s what he told himself as he paced outside the entrance to the bookstore for the nth time that day. No matter what he told himself, he just couldn’t bring himself to enter. It was just too much. Too overwhelming. He was fairly confident that having a social interaction in a public place with someone he actually respected combined with being forced to face the fact that the cold, emotionless image he had created for himself was, in fact, wrong would cause him to spontaneously combust.

_Shit_, she was coming closer to the entrance now.

Devi D., the greatest woman Nny had ever known.

Although she was certainly beautiful, Johnny never cared much for people’s physical appearance. (He hadn’t cared for anything about people, at least as far as he remembered.) She had a sharp mind and an even sharper tongue. Devi was probably the only person he could honestly say that he always looked forward to seeing.

And yet…

He was still struggling to just open the _fucking_ door. Seriously, he did this all the time, why was today so _hard_?

“Nny? Is that you?”

_ FUCKING HELL_. He’d spent so long in his own thoughts that he almost forgot his current situation.

“Uh-” _Say something, idiot!_ “Yes?”

_What the fuck, why do you sound so unsure of yourself? She asked if it was you. All you had to say was yes or no._

This was going great so far.

Devi opened the door to let him in. “Come on in, it’s cold outside.”

Nny peered into the bookstore to assess exactly what kind of situation he was getting himself into. Thankfully (or not) it wasn’t very crowded, so it would pretty much just be him and Devi there.

Devi gave him an incredulous look. “Man, you must be freezing. You don’t even have a jacket on.” It was pretty cold outside. Halloween had just passed and the temperature had finally dropped enough for it to actually feel like autumn.

Johnny hadn’t noticed.

“Oh, not really.” He didn’t want her to worry over him, not that he thought she ever actually would. “I don’t really get cold.” He was so fucking cold.

“Sure you don’t,” Devi scoffed, looking down at him. She was intimidating, and Johnny was so into it. “That’s why you’re standing out there shivering your ass off. Because you’re not cold.”

“I-” He struggled to find an explanation.

Devi sighed. “Just come in”

Johnny hesitantly entered the threshold and took in his surroundings. The bookstore was a cozy little place. Normally he would have hated somewhere like this, but there was something oddly soothing about it. Maybe it was because it reminded him of Devi. There were candles lit (was that really a good idea in a building filled with flammable objects?) and the floor was covered in multiple overlapping rugs. Christmas lights hung from the ceiling and twisted along the spiral staircase to the upper level of the store like the vines of a crawling plant. It smelled… comforting, like old books and Yankee Candles._ Devi smelled like that sometimes_, he noticed.

“So, what brings you here on such a pleasant day?” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I- I, uh, wanted to…” Johnny sputtered._ To ask you on a date. To ask if you wanted to see a movie sometime. To ask if you want to just hang out._ “… to see if you got any new books recently.”

Devi thought for a moment. “Well” she said, “there isn’t anything new, but there is this book I’ve been meaning to read.” She guided him over to the section of shelves labeled “HORROR” and climbing the small wooden step-ladder, pulled out a small maroon book. “It’s a collection of stories by various authors based on the Cthulhu Mythos. I love the concept of Lovecraft’s work, but I feel better buying things written by people who aren’t obnoxious racist bigots.”

She dumped the book into his arms.

“I think you should give it a try! Maybe we can even read it together. Like a tiny little book club.”

Johnny flushed at the thought. The idea of doing something as intimate as consuming literature with her… _oh_. Oh _my_.

Johnny was a firm believer in the fact that art in any form was a reflection of the creator and its consumers. One could learn more about a person by listening to the music they do, reading their favorite books, or looking at their art than they could ever tell you themselves. This was no exception, and damn, was Johnny scared. As much as he wanted to get to know Devi, the more he thought about actually going through with it the more intimidating it became.

“Hello? Earth to Nny,” Devi’s voice snapped him back to reality. “Whatcha thinkin’ about?”

“Well… I-I actually came here to ask you a question…” _God, he felt so stupid right now._

“Okay, shoot.”

_Okay, Johnny,_ he thought. _This is it. Don’t screw it up._

“Would you happen to be free Friday night?”

“That depends, free to do what?”

Fuck, he hadn’t expected to get this far.

“Whatever you want.”

“Whatever I want? Hm…” _Oh god, was she going to say no? Was she reevaluating her decision to ever talk to him? What the hell was she thinking? What the hell was HE thinking? This was such a bad idea, he never should have come here-_ “I’ll have to think about what I want to do, but I’d love to, Johnny.”

_Be still, my beating heart_. The noise Johnny made in response was more of a wheeze than anything else. “S-so, can I see you at seven?”

“Let’s see… I think my shift ends at five that day. So, yeah, it’s a date!”

_It’s a date_. A _date_. He was going to go on a date with Devi. He could hardly believe it. _Pinch me, for I must be dreaming,_ he thought. “I’ll see you then, I guess,” he said, trying (and failing) to hide his blush.

Johnny paid for his book and hurried home. He had a lot of cleaning up to do before Friday night.


End file.
